Opponents of a Conservative government decision to close down the country’s prison farm system have set up a blockade in downtown Kingston today in front of Correction Services Canada offices.
A coalition of farm group representatives, community activists and prisoner advocates have been campaigning and rallying for months to overturn the decision to auction off the 130 head prison dairy herd at the Frontenac Institution and close the dairy.
“We are hoping the government sees the light,” John Williamson of the Frontenac Federation of Agriculture and a member of the Save Our Prison Farms coalition said July 22. “It boggles the mind that they want to do this. We’ve given them a whole range of green energy options but they are refusing any kind of a dialogue.”
However, the campaign to save the farms appears to be in the last stages.
Corrections Services plans to have the herd auctioned off Aug. 3, just as the New Brunswick prison farm herd was sold off in July.
Farm leaders, including Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett, have been calling the Waterloo auction house OLEX to urge it to pull out of the sale, Williamson said. “We are letting them know they are walking into a hornet’s nest and their other farm clients will not be happy about their involvement.”
He said protesters will organize another blockade in front of the prison if the sale goes ahead.
Still, the government seems determined to close down the six prison farms that have existed for more than 100 years. It argues they cost $4 million annually and do not teach inmates skills they can use to get employment in a modern economy.
Three of the farms are on the Prairies.
CDC already closed down a greenhouse at another Kingston-area prison.
